SB 7.6.1 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्रीप्रह्राद उवाच कौमार आचरेत्प्राज्ञो धर्मान्भागवतानिह । दुर्लभं मानुषं जन्म तदप्यध्रुवमर्थदम् ॥ १ ॥

Verse text

śrī-prahrāda uvāca kaumāra ācaret prājṣo dharmān bhāgavatān iha durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam

Synonyms

śrī — prahrādaḥ uvāca — Prahlāda Mahārāja said ; kaumāraḥ — in the tender age of childhood ; ācaret — should practice ; prājṣaḥ — one who is intelligent ; dharmān — occupational duties ; bhāgavatān — which are devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead ; iha — in this life ; durlabham — very rarely obtained ; mānuṣam — human ; janma — birth ; tat — that ; api — even ; adhruvam — impermanent, temporary ; artha — dam — full of meaning .

Translation

Prahlāda Mahārāja said: One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life — in other words, from the tender age of childhood — to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. The human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like other bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional service. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete perfection.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Prahlāda said: The wise person should practice bhakti-yoga in his life from youth. Human birth is rare and transient but effective for bhakti. In the Sixth Chapter Prahlāda teaches the boys bhakti. Enlightened, they give up attachment to body and home. At the end of the last chapter it was mentioned that Prahlāda was compassionate and friendly. What did he tell the boys? That is explained now. At kaumāra age one should practice dharmas. [Note: The normal progression of ages is kaumāra from 1-5 years, paugaṇḍa from 5-10 years, kaiśora from 10-15 years and yauvana above 15 years. ] “But in youth a person is unqualified for varṇāśrama-dharma.” This dharma is related to the Lord: hearing and chanting, in the land of Bhārata (iha). “But a person will be successful starting during yauvana?” The wise person (prajṣaḥ) understands that perhaps he will die at the end of kaumāra age, and thus his life would be wasted. “But why worry? In a future life one can practice bhakti.” Birth as a human is rare. One attains human form by good fortune, and it is transient. Though you exist today, it is not certain you will exist tomorrow. “How can bhakti be perfected in such a short time?” Human birth is effective (arthadam). One sees that Khātvāṅga and others achieved success by having bhakti for only a few moments.

Purport

The whole purpose of Vedic civilization and of reading the Vedas is to attain the perfect stage of devotional service in the human form of life. According to the Vedic system, therefore, from the very beginning of life the brahmacarya system is introduced so that from one’s very childhood — from the age of five years — one can practice modifying one’s human activities so as to engage perfectly in devotional service. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (2.40) , svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt: “Even a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.” Modern civilization, not referring to the verdicts of Vedic literature, is so cruel to the members of human society that instead of teaching children to become brahmacārīs, it teaches mothers to kill their children even in the womb, on the plea of curbing the increase of population. And if by chance a child is saved, he is educated only for sense gratification. Gradually, throughout the entire world, human society is losing interest in the perfection of life. Indeed, men are living like cats and dogs, spoiling the duration of their human lives by actually preparing to transmigrate again to the degraded species among the 8,400,000 forms of life. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is anxious to serve human society by teaching people to perform devotional service, which can save a human being from being degraded again to animal life. As already stated by Prahlāda Mahārāja, bhāgavata-dharma consists of śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam/ arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam. In all the schools, colleges and universities, and at home, all children and youths should be taught to hear about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, they should be taught to hear the instructions of Bhagavad-gītā, to put them into practice in their lives, and thus to become strong in devotional service, free from fear of being degraded to animal life. Following bhāgavata-dharma has been made extremely easy in this Age of Kali. The śāstra says: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā One need only chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Everyone engaged in the practice of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra will be completely cleansed, from the core of his heart, and be saved from the cycle of birth and death.